Looking back at CBT we had an opportunity to mess around with the cash shop and now that I think about it the prices in the shop were actually insanely overpriced. I did take some screenshots before CBT ended but is there any news of whether these prices are set in stone for launch or were they just test numbers during the CBT ? As I recall we were also given 40,000 Royal Crystals to mess around with which should be equivalent to $400.
A platinum founder pack gives us 7,000 Royal Crystals so if a name change cost is 1,800 then we’re basically paying almost $20 for a name change and pets are 1,400 ($14) assuming every dollar is 100 royal crystals.
I wouldn’t go as far as calling it “insanely overpriced”, it’s not cheap for what it is for sure but those two items you refer to are absolutely non-essential.
You get a free pet early game and I doubt anyone will be using a char rename coupon every month… I played WoW on & off for over 10y and used the renaming system twice only. I’ve never renamed on other mmorpgs.
A pet for $10 would sound more reasonable imho, but that’s just me.
Also, there’s already an ongoing thread regarding cash shop items
I wouldn’t say it’s insanely overpriced, pretty industry standard when I look at the screenshots you provided. Everything in commercial trade works around supply and demand, so having higher prices keeps the demand at a mid to low rate. This in turn means you need less trade infrastructure to keep the shop in this case open and usable. If demand gets really low they will probably lower the prices to entice more trades.
If my memory serves me right World of Warcraft started selling services like name change in Cataclysm (released 2010) at $15 (later changed to $10) which with inflation on the US Dollar would be $19.18 today, so again fairly reasonable in my opinion. In time they might lower it, but for now AGS will probably try to get a few extra dollars here and there.
Since it’s digital goods supply doesn’t influence the cost, so that part is irrelevant in this discussion.
I don’t have the values from the KR store but on RU pets are only 429 Royal Crystals. According to the Royal Crystal to RUB conversion a 429 Royal Crystal pet is roughly $5.45 USD. We’re paying almost triple the price for a pet even with all the conversions considered on our version.
If you could link me the ongoing thread it’d be appreciated as well !
You’re comparing Russian prices on a Russian service to a US service, which doesn’t work as average annual income is much lower in Russia than in the US comparatively.
“The average hourly wage in Russia is 600 RUB or USD 8.09 (US Dollars), and the hourly minimum wage is 150 RUB (USD 2.01). Russia has a median salary of 110,000 RUB per month (USD 1,472.90).”
i’ll leave it at this and we can continue the discussion in the other thread that has already been established.
Not only is that not apples to apples but the RU GOV controls the price of all gaming in the federation. That’s why RU game keys are 99.9% geo locked out of the rest of the world. For example brand new AAA games that cost 60<>80 euro in EU/US, in RU are limited to 15<>20 euro equivalent in rubles.
The game is going to be priced almost certainly at 10$ = 1000RCs and considering the cash shop is optional 100% in the west {crystal aura can be purchased through IG grind} I don’t think 10$/€ for 1k RCs is bad.
Wasnt there word that we would be able to buy everything except for services like name change and so on for gold which we can earn ingame? So costumes, pets and so on are with gold prices.
" 1. To ensure all purchases in-game feel optional, it is important players have a path to acquire all items in our in-game store without having to make a purchase. Most items are available with Crystals which can be earned by trading gold at a player-run exchange. Any item without a Crystal price will be tradable via the in-game trading post. This means that all items will be available for in-game, earnable currencies (with few exceptions, such as Founder’s Packs and services like name changes)."
Is it only via Steam or there are other possible platforms or ways to top up in-game currency. Please let us know more info regarding topping up in-game currency!
